Strawberry Breaks Out in Big Way

It was kind of like old times, Darryl Strawberry hitting home runs and Dwight Gooden pitching for New York.

Only it’s a different team, the Yankees, in a different league, the American.

As far as the Orioles are concerned, they could have stayed with the Mets in the National.

Strawberry, who was 0 for 10 since being signed by the Yankees, broke out of that slump with two two-run homers in support of Gooden, who won his sixth in a row, 7-5, on Saturday night in Baltimore.

“It was like a flashback,” Gooden said.

The victory gave New York a doubleheader sweep. The Yankees won the first game, 3-2, when Joe Girardi singled home the tying run in the ninth inning and scored on Mariano Duncan’s double.

The sweep left the Yankees with a season-high nine-game lead over second-place Baltimore in the AL East. New York has won eight of its last nine games.

Strawberry drove a 2-2 pitch from Rocky Coppinger over the right-field wall in the third inning. It was his first home run since Sept. 10, 1995, when he hit one for the Yankees against Boston.

His second homer came in his next at-bat and put New York ahead, 7-5, in the fifth inning. The 425-foot shot off Arthur Rhodes (9-1) gave Strawberry his first two-homer game since April 1992, when he was a Dodger.

“I felt like I was swinging well. It was just a matter of time before things started falling into place,” Strawberry said. “This is an indication that things are starting to come back around.”

Gooden (9-4) struggled in improving to 6-0 in seven starts since May 26. He gave up five runs, seven hits and seven walks in five innings, striking out five.

Cleveland 19, Minnesota 11--Albert Belle hit his 30th home run and also helped the Indians tie an AL record with 12 doubles in a victory at Minneapolis.

The record was set by Boston against Detroit on July 29, 1990.

Cleveland and Minnesota combined to set an AL record with 18 doubles, surpassing the 16 by the Indians and Yankees on July 21, 1921.

Kenny Lofton had three doubles and Mark Carreon had two for Cleveland.

Boston 10, Detroit 5--Tim Naehring homered and scored five runs for the Red Sox, who won in Detroit for their fourth victory in a row.

Mike Stanley hit a three-run homer and Jose Malave had two two-run singles for the Red Sox, who are 8-1 against the Tigers this season.

Chicago 3, Kansas City 1--Alex Fernandez held the Royals to four hits and Chris Snopek, replacing injured Frank Thomas, had a two-run triple for the White Sox in Kansas City.

Fernandez (9-5), rebounding from his worst start of the season, struck out five in raising his lifetime record in Kauffman Stadium to 6-0 with a 1.80 earned-run average.

Toronto 15, Milwaukee 7--Robert Perez, who had only one home run in his first 163 major league at-bats, hit two of the Blue Jays’ five homers at Milwaukee.

Ed Sprague had a three-run homer, a two-run single and a double for Toronto, which also got homers from Joe Carter and Charlie O’Brien.

Texas 8, Oakland 1--Roger Pavlik pitched three-hit ball for eight innings and the Rangers hit four home runs in Oakland.

Juan Gonzalez hit his 23rd homer for Texas, and Mickey Tettleton, Kevin Elster and Mark McLemore also connected. Mark McGwire hit his 30th homer for Oakland.